We went for a walk around West Lake on a gray day during Chinese New Year. Even overcast the lake is still beautiful and we were glad to be out. We went to Guo's villa, an old estate of some famous Chinese guy and then walked around the lake to the other side. The geese you see are swimming towards the famous "broken bridge" It's not really broken, but if the light falls just right it looks like parts are submerged underwater. In the background is Baoshu temple, one of the first places we ever went in Hangzhou. The other picture is John relaxing in our sunny living room after having rearranged all the furniture. And then there is me and baby, and as you can see, it is time this baby came out, I don't think it's possible for my belly to get any bigger. John goes back to work tomorrow after a week off, full of fireworks. We mostly just stayed home. John was busy with school work, grading and taxes, but we spent a couple days in Shanghai for a doctors appointment and a little shopping. I am officially on maternity leave now. Yea! I'm just a sitting duck now, waiting for the big day.

More Belly Pics

Trouble in Paradise

We were hanging out at the beach today and Alanna and I decided to go for a walk along the beach. John was listening to his headphones. We were gone about 45 minutes or so, but when we came back our beach blanket was surrounded with people and there was a police man there. Someone had apparently taken our bag and walked off with it. The bag was sitting behind John but he had on his big headphones and didn't hear. There were people sitting around us but they didn't do anything to stop it I guess. One man motioned for John to look behind him which was when he realized the bag was gone. I remember reading something about how the Chinese will just watch petty crime happen and not do anything about it. So most likely they saw someone take our bag, waited until the guy had left and then alerted John to the fact that it was gone. Maybe it just happened really fast though and no one had time to think to stop the thief. We lost our cell phone, the camera, about a hundred and fifty dollars and the key to our hotel room. The police called our hotel because the hotel printed their name and the room number on our key, which is really a bad idea, but Emily (who is also here, but was at the hotel sick with a stomach bug) went and got our passports and the rest of our money to keep in her room. When we got back to the hotel the first thing they said was "hello, you need to pay for the key you lost today." Jerks.
Anyway it could have been worse, but it wasn't a great day. I'm ready to go home now. Thank god our passports weren't in the bag.

New Stuff

Our new feature on this blog is leaving your owns posts without having to sign in. So anyone who wants to comment about a picture can do it easily now. We have also added Pac-Man, weather, and converters to play with.

Sanya

The DaDongHai beach area is full of excitement. The Sanya beaches are full of Russians as Hainan is the closest island resort to Russia. All the shop signs and restaurant menus are in Chinese and Russian. The Chinese fruit vendors even yell at you in Russian. Because we are obviously not Chinese, everyone talks to us in Russian until they realize how confused we look. We haven't figured out how to make captions on our pictures yet, but if you look through you will see a rent-a-snake, a very vigilant lifeguard, some Mr. and Mrs. Universe contenders and Russian lady determined to get a full body tan. There is also a good Chinglish sign and then pictures of the Sanya sunset and our friend Emily and I under our umbrella on the beach.

Hong Kong- New Year's Eve/New Year's Day

Hong Kong Victoria Peak